Bellmount Wood
by Briar's EquinoX
Summary: Rowanbrooke Hall is a treetop village just like Redwall. When an evil tyrant tries to take over this peaceful village chaos ensues, but the docile Woodlanders are tougher than they look.
1. Harvest

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This is my first fic so please don't flame. I'd really appreciate it if everyone would write a review. Believe me, the story will get more interesting, I'm still introducing the characters and setting. By the end there'll be some major Action and Drama.  
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Chapter 1  
  
  
Deep in Bellmount Wood, many creatures scurried about gathering the plentiful harvest which lay about them. The warm sun of late summer beat down upon their backs. High in the clear blue sky birds trilled their melodious arias and a light breeze ruffled the leaves of the oaks, maples and beeches.   
  
Abraham the mouse, and his friend Rosetta were in the berry patches picking raspberries. In other rows of the garden, the nimble fingers of hares, badgers, hedgehogs, otters and squirrels stripped the bluberry, elderberry, gooseberry and currant bushes of their ripe fruit. At the entrance to the orchards a small pile was already beginning to form of woven reed baskets brimming with the summer's harvest. Everywhere you looked you could see happy creatures talking and laughing as the gathered the bountiful harvest Mother Nature had provided. There was fruit in the orchards, nuts in the trees, fish in the millpond and produce in the ample gardens.  
  
From a high vantage point in the trees a tall figure watched the proceedings with a smile. She was Lady Bluebelle, the female badger guardian of Rowanbrooke Hall, the treetop village.   
  
In fact, she wasn't just climbing any tree, she was the standing on a platform nailed to two wide limbs of a tall majestic rowan tree, everyone referred to as 'The Grandfather'. In the center of the green meadows, rolling hills and hardwood forests of the surrounding countryside, this grandfather of all trees had stood for seasons too numerous to count. Carefully concealed in its massive trunk lay a door. Inside, there was an intricately carved staircase which led up through the hollowed out trunk to Rowanbrooke Hall. The hall was one of a kind. There was not another thing like it all across the land, except for the mythical village of Brockhall which existed only through whispered words beside quiet, smoky campfires.   
  
Manybeasts lived in the impressive granite block structure perched precariously over the strong branches of the tree. It was an architectural wonder - many wise owl philosophers had pondered the question of Rowanbrooke Hall for countless evenings. How could a large brick building that contained the kitchens, a school, the libraries, a hospice for the sick and homes for hundreds of its beastly residents sit atop a tree? And how could it resist countless waves of vermin attackers and counter the diabolical plots of many evil leaders? No one knew for sure, but one thing they did know was that Rowanbrooke Hall seemed to have something magical about it that let manybeasts live together in peace and harmony.   
  
Lady Bluebelle sighed in happiness as she swung on a thick vine of Ivy that had entwined itself around a branch of the Rowan. "I love this place!" she said out loud and in her heart made a silent vow to protect Rowanbrooke Hall and it's inhabitants no matter what happened. Would her vows be tested sooner than she though? 


	2. Lady Bluebelle

Chapter 2  
  
Lady Bluebelle woke up with a start and realized she had fallen asleep on the tree branch. She hurried into the Great Hall and up the narrow Oak staircase to the belltower. She pulled at the knotted rope hurriedly and forcefully. It roung out with a resounding BONG announcing to everyone in the fields that lunch was ready.   
  
The squirrelmaids Pansy, Petunia and Peony set out a picnic lunch of cold fruit salad, apple and walnut biscuits, hazelnut cream cake, filleted trout and currant juice on the long oak tables in the shade of the leafy maples by the edge of Rowan Brook.   
  
It babbled talkatively and splish-splashed lively around the stepping stones imbedded in the riverbed. Crimson, orange, red, burgundy and golden leaves meandered slowly down the brook, carried by the lazy current. They had recently fallen from the trees of the forests which stretched into the distance. The autumn leaves painted a brilliantly vivid picture of fall colour. According to the carefully scripted calendar the scholar mice had worked hard on for months, today was the first day of autumn!   
  
The diligent workers noticed the change in seasons too, as they deposited their produce on the steps of the cellars by the bottom of the rowan tree trunk. The fall wind picked up their spirits and carried their souls sky-high with the freshness, cripsness and busyness that fall signalled. They sat down contentedly at the tables and filled their plates with the delicious spread. The chubby hare cook Hazel, ladled out generous helpings of watercress stew from steaming tureens lying at the grand table where Lady Bluebelle and her daughter Lilia sat.  
  
Mothers with young ones emerged from cozy thatched cottages to enjoy the meal too. Older beasts, hobbled along using their shiny canes to support them. Everybeast washed their paws in the brook before sitting down impatiently along the tables. Finally Lady Bluebelle signaled for everyone to hold hands and say grace. She bowed her head and said...  
  
Thank you for this bountiful harvest  
And this sparkling day of fall  
Thank you for the food on the table  
And bless all the creatures of Rowanbrooke Hall  
  
With a cheer the hungry creatures dug into the food. In no time at all it was gone into many satiated stomachs. After the tables were cleared everyone moved along to their next job. There was still much harvesting, preserving and storing of food to be done, because winter was right around the corner!  
  
That afternoon Abraham and Rosetta were chosen to help out in the kitchen. They assisted Hazel, Pansy, Petunia and Peony at slicing and canning freshly picked pears, plums and apples. Then they moved on to peaches. The fruit would help tide everyone over through the winter, when the only food available was fish from the millpond. The canned fruit would be opened later and made into pies, preserves, jelly, tarts and fruit salad.   
  
Amberose the Rabbit carried large sacks of walnuts, acorns, beechnuts and hazelnuts up to the kitchens from the cellar. The nuts had all been harvested that morning. Half the kitchen crew set about grinding some nuts into flour, while the others dipped the remainder of the nuts into a honey and sugar toffee mixture. They were set on pans to harden. Later they would be bagged and set aside for snacks in midwinter.  
  
They toiled all afternoon, finishing just in time to start preparing supper! They put bread and biscuits in the huge ovens and started the turnip, beet and carrot stew simmering over the open fire. They also prepared oat farls, raspberry tarts, deeper 'n eve pie (for the moles) and honey roasted potatoes. Even though, you were surrounded by delicious smells, Abraham and Rosetta decided that kitchen work was backbreaking! From now on they'd stick with working in the fields. 


	3. Salsa Springs

Chapter 3  
  
Cairo the rattlesnake coiled his massive form around a thick marble pillar in his temple. Enslaved creatures were shackled to the pillars around him. They waved palm fronds in the air creating a gentle breeze to cool him. Cairo was restless. After his armies had defeated the great empire of Nipponia, he had been at a loose end. Slaves, jewles and other plunder had been pouring into Salsa Springs for weeks now on giant wooden wagons driven by his racoon commanders. He was getting richer and more powerful daily. But still he wanted more.  
  
Cairo was the greatest tyrant the animal world had ever seen. He drove creatures away from their homes and enslaved them in his many fine palaces and temples, or used them as cheap labour in his mines and farms. They toiled their lives away endlessly under awful conditions to satisfy a cruel and merciless dictator's every whim. With his wealth and influence he had brought together an army of scores and scores of raccoons and rats. They travelled the countryside and brought plunder to Cairo. Part of the reason they obeyed him was that they were afraid of him, but the other was that he always won.   
  
He was an excellent general with a clever and twisted mind. Not only that, but he had a huge inflated ego. He pampered himself by building a city called Salsa Springs, just for him and his most trusted advisors to live in. It was filled with temples and statues dedicated to Cairo. The more jewels and riches he got the more he began to feel that something was missing inside him. So he called all his advisors to a spur of the moment war council.   
  
With a long hiss Cairo began speaking. "I have desssided to make war on Bellmount Wood! I want you to mobilize my entire army immediately, except for guardssss. We will march on the first day of ssspring next year! The might of my army will be felt all over the world. We will penetrate the darkest cavernssss, the farthest islandsss, the coldest mountaintopsss and mossst of all - the deepest and thickest of all forestsss!"  
  
A racoon wearing thick linen robes and a green sash timidly raised his hand. "But master, don't you re-re-remember what happened to your father's army when he attacked Rowanbrooke Hall last campaign?"  
  
"Silence!!!" shrieked Cairo. "I remember very well my father's folly. Thisss time it will be different. Those Woodlanders will fall! And they will pay for what they have done in generations past!"  
  
"In fact, YOU Arizona will lead an advanced group of warriors to capture hostages and bring them back to me. Yesss, yesss... I can see it all now. We will bring some hostages back to Salsa Springssss and find out from them whether the Woodlanderssss are well prepared for our invasion. And when we return next spring with our full force, they might be more inclined to bargain with me for the return of their precious hostages. We will crush them! Those measly Woodlandersss will feel the full power of Cairo's wrath! And they will grovel before me to beg for my forgivnessss..." Cairo continued mumbling to himself about all the things he would do to the creatures once he had defeated them.  
  
A shudder went through the advisors. What Cairo was planning to do was bold, brutal and just a little bit crazy. Despite the size and might of the armies that came before him in attacking Bellmount Wood, they had all failed. It seemed the Woodlanders had a might all of their own when it came to defending their happy, peaceful lives. But then again, Cairo had never lost a battle.  
  
  
  



	4. Arizona's Trek

Chapter 4  
  
The paws of a score of rats and one raccoon crunched through the autumn leaves that had fallen onto the forest floor. The paws upturned the fertile earth, stepped on beetles and kicked over toadstools. Autumn was almost over. The trees bare skeletons reached up into the sky and the ground was littered with branches and brown, shriveled leaves. Soon winter would come and the snow would blanket the ground and all the creatures of Bellmount Wood would retreat into the homes for a long hibernation.  
  
"Pick up your feet! Move those fat bottoms!" Arizona, the rat's raccoon commander screamed hysterically. Since the group had left Salsa Springs he had been very angry. Just when he thought he could stay and live his life of comfort and power in Salsa Springs, Cairo had chosen him to lead an elite force of rats on a mission to Bellmount Wood to take hostages. Arizona didn't want to, but to disobey Cairo was certain death. "Besides" he told himself "Cairo will be so pleased after I come back with some influential Rowanbrooke Hall hostages, that he'll make me his commander-in-chief!"  
  
At first, the rats had thought Arizona would go easy on them because he was too wrapped up in his own misery; but they were quickly proven wrong. Arizona was a strict military commander who didn't tolerate any nonsense form his rats. He put them through a challenging boot camp before they left on their mission and they made excellent progress. They were responsible for finding their own food and they marched in complete silence every day to mask their presence.   
  
They had walked for a score of days when the lead rat gave a shout and pointed ahead.  
  
"There it is Master! Rowanbrooke Hall!"  
  
And there it was. Far ahead of the bare trees of Bellmount Wood were the rolling fields surrounding the massive rowan. Little creatures scurried about busily, tending to some task.  
  
Arizona gave a huge sigh of relief. The trek there had been back-breaking, although they completed it in record time. Cairo would be pleased. Now all they had to was capture half a score of hostages and get back to sunny Salsa Springs. 


	5. Kidnapped!

Bellmount Wood  
Chapter 5 ~ Kidnapped!  
  
The vermin under Arizona's command made camp just outside Rowanbrooke Hall in a shady glade where they wouldn't be discovered. Arizona had given the rats a day to rest and get ready for the action that would take place the next day. He had come up with a cunning and ingenious plan to kidnap some hostages. They would snatch them out of the forest, then escape back to Salsa Springs. Cairo would extract any information he wanted from them, then they would set back out with a huge army to conquier Rowanbrooke Hall.  
  
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That afternoon the infirmary had run out of rosemary, thyme, brightbalm and frostleaf plants for healing. Sootpaws, the nurse wanted to make sure they had plenty of natural medicines before winter set in and the forest became snowbound. Right now, the plants were at their peak time for harvesting. The leaves and seeds came off easily.  
  
So a group of dibbuns, hares and otters set out into the woods to find the plants. Dahlia Cottontail, the leader of the expedition suspected their mission was partly to keep the dibbuns out of trouble, and the hares out of the kitchens, but she couldn't be sure. The baskets all of the creatures carried were almost completely full of spicy, sweetsmelling herbs and they were about to head back when Dahlia heard a rustling in the bushes behind them.  
  
"I say chaps! What's that rustling in those bushes, wot, wot?" She hopped over to see what was going on. It was probably one of the dibbuns trying to scare her. Tricky likkle things!   
  
Suddenly a net sprang down out of the trees and enveloped Dahlia in its folds of twine. It was lifted off the ground by a previously hidden rope attached to the trap. It got tighter and tighter on Dahlia until she was gasping for breath and couldn't move at all.  
  
"Bally-ho! Wots this going on here!" Dahlia was angry. She now thought that vermin were in the woods. "Skipper!" she shouted at the otter. "Get the dibbuns safely back to the hall and sound the alarm. I can take care of myself. If I don't came back meself, rescue me!"   
  
But before they could move a ferocious band of sea rats surrounded them and started roaring. The dibbuns realized this wasn't a happy afternoon in the forest anymore so they started whining and crying. It was a very loud cacophony but they were far enough away from Rowanbrooke Hall nobeast heard. The corsairs drew their sharp daggers with shining blades and pointed them at the helpless creature's throats. The otters wanted to fight back, but they didn't want to endanger the dibbuns.  
  
"Awright. Surrender, all of ye! And stop that terrible bawlin!" an angry looking rat spoke up for the first time. The dibbuns abruptly stopped their noisemaking. "No one of ye gets hurted if ye come wits lotsa coperashun!"  
  
The otters, hares and now-quiet dibbuns were led away into the forest towards the vermin camp with knives at their throat and a guard of at least a score of vermin. There was no chance of escape. They would have to hope someone would rescue them.   
  
It seemed like there wasn't a hope in the world, when suddenly a bright thought popped into Skipper's head. The stupid vermin had forgotten Dahlia or they planned to go back for her. They must have underestimated the power of her sharp teeth and long legs. Maybe help was on the way already! 


	6. Rescue

Bellmount Wood  
Chapter 6 ~ Rescue  
  
Dahlia Cottontail gnawed carefully through the rope holding her in place and kicked valiantly with her powerful back legs. In a few minutes she was free and the net fell away uselessly to the ground.  
  
"Just like Corsairs to use low quality supplies!" she laughed. But she forced herself to stay on task. She must warn everyone about the vermin attacks and try to free the otters, hares and dibbuns!  
  
Dahlia galloped like a horse into the sunny fields of Rowanbrooke Hall. Everyone looked so happy. And so unsafe. They could be attacked at any moment! They didn't even know the vermin's numbers!  
  
She sounded the alarm loudly, proclaiming for all beasts to hear about exactly what had happened in detail.   
  
Lady Bluebelle heard her and hurried over. "Are you sure my dear?" she asked worriedly.   
  
"Of course I am marm." Dahlia said quickly. "Why I just escaped from a cleverly laid trap meself!"  
  
"This is serious!" Lady Bluebelle decided. "May I have everybeasts attention please?" every eye was riveted to her face. "We've had an emergency and I'd like to ask everybeast to leave what they're doing and come into the safety of the great hall. We have to discuss what's been happening and send out a war party to get back their prisoners!"  
  
There was a fast, steady stream of creatures running up the stairs and taking their seats in the great hall. Lady Bluebelle outlined their emergency safety plans to make sure nobeast would be in danger and their action plan to get back the hostages without any difficulties. Although Rowanbrooke Hall experienced peace most of the time Lady Bluebelle put everyone through rigorous training to make sure they were fit, competent and were adept at using weapons.  
  
Mothers comforted crying babes and fathers gazed at specks of dust on the floor giving them a harsh look and shooting insivible daggers as if the dust were to blame for all of the problems. Younger creatures scurried about happily, unaware of the danger but all the same a tad confused about why the adults were sitting together in tight groups with worried looks on their faces.   
  
Lady Bluebelle summoned the best archers, strongest beasts in paw-to-paw combat and the fastest runners to huddle around her. They would attack the vermin camp and beat them away from the otters, hares and babes. The main objective would be to rescue the hostages without harming them, but the secondary one was to defeat the vermin beasts. They would soon feel the wrath of the Woodlanders. Unfortunately it took a while to make sure everyone was safe in their homes and the rescue party was ready to go.  
  
The elite commando group finally descended the stairs soundlessly. Before leaving to command the mission Lady Bluebelle instructed Hazel to distribute hot cocoa with warm milk to try and calm everyone down.   
  
The group of squirrels, hares and otters armed with swords, bows and arrows crept quietly through the forest following Dahlia's lead. When they reached the clearing filled with trampled bushes and other signs of a struggle they were astonished to find it empty. Not even a shred of fabric from the net that had held Dahlia remained.  
  
"Those sneaky tricksters!" Lady Bluebelle exclaimed quietly in rage. She felt like screaming it out in a huge burst of a anger and sorrow but self-discipline kept it in. This could be a trap laid by the enemy. They could not afford to lose time.   
  
"Which direction did they go?" she asked Dahlia silently. Fortunately Dahlia could read her lips.  
  
"They've done a fair good job of covering it about-like, but they can't supress the instincts of a top-hole tracking hare!" Dahlia followed a barely discernable path through the woods.   
  
Normally vermin left gaping holes in tree trunks from their vicious axe blades and ripped up turf from their plodding feet but these ones were obviously smarter than usual and had gone to trouble to conceal their camp. Only tiny things, like late-bloomig violets missing a leaf and a blade of brown grass out of place gave away their presence. Most beasts would have dismissed these signs as just a coincidence, but Dahlia had an almost clairvoyant sense of which way to go.  
  
The Woodlanders plodded silently through the barren forest, devoid of life except for the owls who flew overhead, hooting ominously. Suddenly they came to a very large clearing that had signs of recent life. Muddy patches showed where tents had stood just hours ago and been hurriedly taken down. Smoky ashes lay in a huge firepit that still had live embers burning in it. Whoever had lived here, had left in a hurry.  
  
The Woodlanders were crestfallen. The vermin had obviously escaped in the nick of time and planned this attack before hand. They could track them down, but valuable time had already been lost. It would be better to find a tracking party of the fastest warriors to slow them down long enough that a larger band of beasts could take part in the rescue attempt. The leader behind this had so far proven to be reckless, cunning and successful...   
  
Lady Bluebelle and her troops returned to Rowanbrooke Hall to regroup. She wouldn't let this happen again. 


End file.
